Japan's hotel taxes, city by city
Feesstarting March 2026
Reviewed on 2026-10-12. This information expires: confirm it close to your travel dates.
The tax is 宿泊税, shukuhakuzei, and it is not national: each prefecture or city sets its own brackets and start date, so no single figure covers Japan. The big change of 2026 is Kyoto, which on 1 March swapped three brackets for five, signed off by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on 3 October 2025. It is 200¥ per person per night below 6.000¥, 400¥ from 6.000¥ to 20.000¥, 1.000¥ from 20.000¥ to 50.000¥, 4.000¥ from 50.000¥ to 100.000¥, and 10.000¥ from 100.000¥ up. The old figures were 200¥, 500¥ and 1.000¥. Kyoto has no tax-free floor: a 2.500¥ hostel bunk owes its 200¥.
Outside Kyoto, the map as of October 2026. Tokyo still charges 100¥ between 10.000¥ and 15.000¥ and 200¥ above, nothing below 10.000¥. Osaka, since 1 September 2025: exempt below 5.000¥, 200¥ up to 15.000¥, 400¥ up to 20.000¥, 500¥ from there. Fukuoka City, 200¥ or 500¥ either side of a 20.000¥ cut-off; Kitakyushu, a flat 200¥; the rest of the prefecture, 200¥. Kanazawa has exempted stays below 5.000¥ since October 2024, then charges 200¥ and 500¥. Nagasaki City runs 100¥, 200¥ and 500¥, with cut-offs at 10.000¥ and 20.000¥.
The recent arrivals. Sendai charges 300¥ from 13 January 2026 on rooms of 6.000¥ or more, 200¥ for the city and 100¥ for Miyagi. Sapporo started on 1 April 2026 at 300¥, 400¥ and 1.000¥, figures that already fold in the 100¥, 200¥ or 500¥ Hokkaido prefecture began charging island-wide the same day. Matsumoto started on 1 June 2026 at 200¥, nothing below 6.000¥, rising to 300¥ in 2029; the rest of Nagano the same. Kutchan, beside Niseko, is the odd one out: 3% of the price, no ceiling.
What it means for your trip
Almost every scale runs per person per night, not per room, and the figure that sets your bracket is the lodging charge alone, with meals and consumption tax taken out. If the rate is quoted per room it gets divided by the number of guests: a 20.000¥ double counts as 10.000¥ a head. For an ordinary trip none of this changes plans: two people, fourteen nights across Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka in doubles between 15.000¥ and 25.000¥, pay roughly 7.000¥ in all. Where it bites is Kyoto at the top: a 200.000¥ double is 100.000¥ a head and 10.000¥ each, against 1.000¥ in February.
You normally pay at the front desk, separately, in cash or by card. Booking, Expedia and Agoda usually leave it out of the total they charge: it sits under charges not included, and booking direct changes nothing. The law makes the property the collecting agent, never the platform, so an agency only spares you the desk payment if it already took the money, which happens more with Rakuten Travel or Jalan than with the international sites. The type of place makes no difference: hostels, capsules, ryokan, minshuku and apartments registered as minpaku are all in, because the licence decides, not the star rating.
Questions
Do I pay at the hotel, or is it inside the booking?
Almost always at the hotel, on arrival or at checkout, and it is not inside the price Booking charged you. The duty to collect sits with the property, not the platform. Some Japanese agencies take it up front, and then the hotel will not ask again.
What will I pay in Kyoto?
It depends on the price per person per night, with meals and consumption tax stripped out: 200¥ below 6.000¥, 400¥ up to 20.000¥, 1.000¥ up to 50.000¥, 4.000¥ up to 100.000¥ and 10.000¥ above that. In the bracket where most visitors sleep, the real increase is 200¥ per person per night.
Do children pay?
Yes, the same as adults. None of the cities checked exempts anyone by age, and Kyoto says so outright: the tax ignores personal circumstances. The only exemption reaching minors covers school trips and outings from accredited childcare facilities, with a certificate from the school.
Does a hostel or an apartment pay the same as a hotel?
Yes, if it is registered. The ordinances tax lodging licensed under the hotel business law, capsules and hostels included, and registered short-term rentals too. There is no separate rate by type. What can spare you is the price, wherever a tax-free floor exists.
Which cities are about to start charging?
Tokyo switches to 3% of the price on 1 April 2027, exempt below 13.000¥ and extended to capsules and minpaku. Okinawa starts on 1 February 2027 with 2% capped at 2.000¥, Ishigaki and Miyakojima included. Hakone has 2028 pencilled in.
What is still unclear
What I could not confirm officially is the amount for the dozens of small municipalities that joined during 2026, mostly in Hokkaido and Nagano: each town publishes its own ordinance and there is no central register. Niseko has approval to drop its fixed brackets for Kutchan's 3%, with November 2026 as the date the sources carry and no official notice of entry into force. And I found no long-stay exemption in any ordinance: it accrues night by night, with no cap on nights.
Build your route with this already factored in
The planner accounts for these changes where they matter: the JR Pass comparison uses current prices, and the cost summary includes the taxes you will actually run into.
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